Massive attacks: Iraqi vote build-up

[2-0-Sixx]

There has been another day of violence across Iraq, as the country prepares for Sunday's election.

Bombs and gun battles mainly in Sunni Muslim areas killed at least a dozen Iraqis and a US marine, while a clutch of polling stations were also hit.

Rebels have urged voters to boycott the poll, threatening more attacks.

In Australia, Iraqi expatriates have begun voting. They are among 280,303 exiles registered to vote in 14 countries, including the US and UK.

Nearly 12,000 of Iraqis have registered to vote in Australia - about 15% of the estimated 80,000 eligible Iraqi nationals.

The expatriate vote is running from Friday to Sunday.

In Iraq, electoral officials have said there will be as many as 120 international monitors supervising the voting there.

The chief administrator of Iraq's independent electoral commission has said a number of foreign embassies will provide staff to act as monitors, with some of them supervising the vote outside Baghdad.

On Thursday, ballot boxes were being put in position in southern Iraq.

Election threat

Militant groups called on Iraqis to boycott the polls, a day after US President George Bush urged voters to "defy the terrorists".

The militant Army of Ansar al-Sunna said in a statement that Iraqis who vote "will have only themselves to blame" as it threatened further attacks.

Another insurgent group, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, released a video showing the execution of a man it said worked as a senior aide to interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

In violence across the country:

* In Mahmudia, south of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed at least three people after missing a military convoy

* A US Marine was killed in the same area, the US military said

* Gunmen attacked a National Guard post in Ramadi, with reports of several fatalities

* In Baquba, north of the capital, a suicide car bomber attacked Iraqi security forces, killing at least one person

* In Samarra, bomb attacks killed at least six people, including Iraqi soldiers and civilians​

Prime target

The violence has led to many candidates campaigning in secret, without revealing their names.

The BBC's Paul Wood, who accompanied two candidates campaigning in Baghdad, says people are taking seriously the threats by Sunni militants to wash the streets with candidates' blood.

I will not vote in these elections. Why should I? No-one did anything for us," computer engineer Ali Jasem, who lives in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, a Shia Muslim area, told Reuters.

"The streets are horrible. There is no electricity, no water. No human can live in our conditions and yet they expect us to vote."

Secrecy

In southern Iraq, British troops looked out for parked cars and signs of roadside bombs as they guarded a convoy carrying ballot boxes to the town of Majar al-Kabir.

A Lynx attack helicopter flew above the vehicles during the journey.

Correspondents say the tight security precautions illustrate fears that the predominantly Shia area could be a prime target for insurgent attacks.

The locations of polling stations are being kept secret until the last minute.

But four polling stations in Ramadi were reportedly hit on Thursday.

Militants arrived at one venue and ordered people to leave before blowing up the building, reports said.

The US and UK have pinned their hopes on elections robbing insurgents of support they currently enjoy throughout Iraq.

However US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he expected violence to continue beyond the election.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

Regardless of the turnout in Iraq, Bu$hCo. has made it clear that this election will declare the support of the Iraqi people of the US invasion and occupation. Bush has stated that this will be a grand moment in Iraqi history, lol.

The reality of all this is that millions of Iraqis will not vote not because they are scared but because they, like any other intelligent being, understand that this election is a fraud designed to give a democratic polish to the illegal occupation. All of the decisions have already been made in Washington D.C. - the winner, the constitution, the dismantling of state control oil industry and the establishment of permanent US military bases of course.

This week, the Bush administration has gone to Congress for a further $80 billion to fund the occupation, while the Pentagon has declared that 120,000 US troops will remain in Iraq for at least the next two years. The announcements, made before Iraqis even vote, only underscore the fact that the election results are irrelevant to Washington’s plans and will produce nothing more than a puppet regime.

 

[m.w.merlino]

Im sure their problem is with foreign soldiers occupying their country and killing their family members and not with democracy.

 

[m.w.merlino]

Im sure their problem is with foreign soldiers occupying their country and killing their family members and not with democracy.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

The rebels, as do many normal Iraqi citizens, understand that this election is a fraud and has nothing to do with the Iraqi people…it’s all for show. The parties running in this election are nothing more than puppets dancing to the strings of the U.S. Most of the candidates are Pro-Occupation. Most of them belonged to an Iraqi elite who see collaboration with US imperialism as the means of securing wealth, power and privilege. That’s why they are getting blown up.

 

[BAMMER]

killing their family members and not with democracy.

Kinda like the guy we got rid of.It's funny,my brother who served over there has totally different opinions of what the Iraqi people say they want.You guys sure git the goods from the couch.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

....I dont see how they justify the killing of thier own people...that arent involved with the "system" though- ....I dont say that our troops havent killed inoocent victims as well-...I'm not ruling anything out- ....but I couldnt see myself killing YOU if we disagreed with what our government was doing....I'd rather kill off the government-

I think most of the attacks on their "own people" are Iraqi troops, Iraqi Police & Security, and Iraqi political figures. They see them as the enemy too.

I also think that the Iraqi oil is only one of many interests of the U.S.

 

[BaSICCally]

You think the Iraqi people are going to take to the streets after the vote and demand that America now leaves? What is Washington going to do if the Iraqi people vote for the U.S. occupation to end?

 

[Solidous_Snake]

You think the Iraqi people are going to take to the streets after the vote and demand that America now leaves? What is Washington going to do if the Iraqi people vote for the U.S. occupation to end?

Good point. What point would it be for U.S. to help "build" a government if, in the future, U.S. might not care to listen to their requests or demands??

 

[2-0-Sixx]

You think the Iraqi people are going to take to the streets after the vote and demand that America now leaves? What is Washington going to do if the Iraqi people vote for the U.S. occupation to end?

Well that’s not what they are voting for. Shit, a lot of the Iraqi’s don’t even know what the vote is for – many think they’re voting for a president, but they are simply voting for a party.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

Imperialism, military strategy, future “U.S friendly” leaders in Iraq, etc. This is how the U.S operates. We need to take other nations resources in order to survive, either covertly or overtly invading 3rd world countries.

 

[BaSICCally]

Well that’s not what they are voting for. Shit, a lot of the Iraqi’s don’t even know what the vote is for – many think they’re voting for a president, but they are simply voting for a party.

Oh I know thats not what their voting for. However, if and only if, these elections work in favor of the Iraqi people, they still have the potential of voting out the Americans in the future.

 

[HERESY]

#4 4 sho!!!!!!!!!

 

[m.w.merlino]

Kinda like the guy we got rid of.It's funny,my brother who served over there has totally different opinions of what the Iraqi people say they want.You guys sure git the goods from the couch.

My good friend serving in Iraq right now would say different. Your brother and my friend dont speak for the Iraqi people though, and I would assume that alot of the insurgents are Iraqi people. The truth is, we killed many MANY innocent Iraqi people trying to take the country, and the only thing we have liberated is thousands of regular people who are now insurgents because our government has taken over Iraq.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

Imperialism is not human nature but it is the nature of Capitalism.

Humans are not born with the mentality to hurt, kill and destroy entire civilizations for profit.

such as migration being human nature?....just the need to move on, & take over?

Migration came about from droughts & the search for food & water for survival, not for ultimate dominance.

Imerialsim IS how all these countries came about, right?

What countries? America, Rome, England, Germany etc? Not all countries, just the ones led by the greedy rich ruling elite.

Question for you: are you defending Imperialism or simply askng questions?

 

[2-0-Sixx]

what about Russia,...a product of imperialism?
china?...both communist countries but were they part of imperialism?

Well, no, neither of those countries are/were communist. But yes, both are part of Imperialism.

 

[m.w.merlino]

do you think Imerialism is human nature?

such as migration being human nature?....just the need to move on, & take over?

Imerialsim IS how all these countries came about, right?

To elaborate on that:

Imperialism is the nature of capitalism simply because of how much we consume. We consume more than any other country in the world. Fuel, food, natural resources, to keep this countrie's people spoiled the by-product becomes imperialism.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

INFORMATIVE READ FOR THOSE INTERESTED.


GOOD READ

Iraq elections set stage for deeper crisis of US occupation regime
By Patrick Martin
31 January 2005

The election January 30 in Iraq marks a further intensification of the contradictions confronting American imperialism, both in Iraq and at home. It will neither resolve the crisis of the American stooge regime in Baghdad, hated and despised by the vast majority of the Iraqi people, nor legitimize the US occupation in the eyes of world and among large sections of the American public.

George W. Bush emerged from the White House briefly to make a triumphal statement hailing the vote. The US media carried wall-to-wall, gushing coverage all day Sunday. But even the combined propaganda powers of the US government and the corporate-controlled media machine cannot transform an election held at gunpoint and under military occupation into a genuinely democratic event.

Initial reports on voter turnout were driven by the political imperative to put the best possible face on the election and influence public opinion in the United States, which is increasingly turning against the war. The turnout figure began at 90 percent plus—numbers reported, naturally enough, on Fox News. Then an Iraqi election official put the figure at 72 percent nationwide. This was subsequently lowered to 60 percent nationwide, then to 60 percent “in some areas.”

The compliant US media dutifully swallowed all these numbers in succession, never challenging their accuracy or questioning how each figure could be so quickly supplanted by a lower one as the day wore on.

The 72 percent figure, for instance, issued just before the polls closed, was inherently improbable, given that most polling places did not even open in the Sunni Triangle. With the vast majority of Sunnis, some 20-25 percent of Iraq’s people, boycotting the election, turnout among the rest of the population would have to be near-unanimous to bring the total up to 72 percent.

The reports on turnout were supplemented by television news footage of happy Iraqis celebrating their new-found freedom to vote, praising the American military, and thanking President Bush. There is ample reason to believe that these scenes were largely staged for the benefit of the media—like the scenes of Iraqis tearing down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square after the US invasion nearly two years ago. (Similar scenes were a hallmark of the Baathist dictatorship as well, with cheering crowds vowing to sacrifice their lives for Saddam.)

According to Robert Fisk of the Independent, a major British daily newspaper, “The big television networks have been given a list of five polling stations where they will be ‘allowed’ to film. Close inspection of the list shows that four of the five are in Shiite Muslim areas—where the polling will probably be high—and one in an upmarket Sunni area, where it will be moderate.” Sunni working class areas were entirely off limits, he noted.

In some cases, the media reports were literally military propaganda handouts. ABC News, for instance, reported thousands of voters in Fallujah, the city virtually destroyed by the US military onslaught last November. The source for this report of surprisingly high turnout was the US military command in the shattered city. Meanwhile, other news outlets put the turnout in Fallujah as minuscule, on a par with the other predominantly Sunni cities where few polls opened and few voters turned out.

The major theme of the media blitz was that the Iraqi people had thronged to the polls in defiance of threats of violence from the insurgent groups opposed to the US occupation. Such coverage ignores the largest purveyor of fear and violence in Iraq by far: the American military occupation, which leveled Fallujah and has blitzed many other Iraqi cities, including Ramadi, Samarra and Mosul, all centers of the Sunni population.

According to Fisk, one of the few credible reporters working in the region, the incessant raids by US ground forces have been supplemented by a new air war: “American air strikes on Iraq have been increasing exponentially. There are no ‘embedded’ reporters on the giant American air base at Qatar or aboard the US carriers in the Gulf from which these ever increasing and ever more lethal sorties are being flown. They go unrecorded, unreported, part of the ‘fantasy’ war which is all too real to the victims but hidden from us journalists. The reality is that much of Iraq has become a free-fire zone (for reference, see under ‘Vietnam’) and the Americans are conducting this secret war as efficiently and as ruthlessly as they conducted their earlier bombing campaign against Iraq between 1991 and 2003, an air raid a day, or two raids, or three.”

The cumulative weight of this violence and destruction is far greater than that of the terror bombs planted by Islamic groups like that allegedly headed by Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian supporter of Osama bin Laden. The US military has killed an estimated 100,000 Iraqis since Bush ordered the invasion in March 2003, a total which dwarfs the casualties caused by terrorist attacks on civilians.

Moreover, the US government and media routinely label all acts of armed resistance against the US invaders, and their stooges in the puppet regime, as “terrorist”—a verbal device designed to criminalize all Iraqi opposition to foreign occupation. In truly Orwellian fashion, the US military occupation, notwithstanding its tactics of torture and mass killing, is identified with “democracy,” while those Iraqis who fight against it are, by definition, enemies of democracy, “anti-Iraqi” elements, and even fascists.

There is evidence of direct intimidation of Iraqis by the US military in the course of election day. American soldiers were reported going through the city of Mosul, largely Sunni-populated and a center of insurgent resistance, and seeking out Iraqi non-voters, who could easily be identified by the absence of a semi-permanent ink stain on the thumb. Any Iraqi without such proof of voting was subjected to questioning as to why he had not voted—and no doubt, had his name entered on US intelligence lists of suspected supporters of the resistance, targeted for future arrest or attack.

More fundamentally, the entire election process is fatally tainted by the US military occupation. The regime that conducted the vote was appointed by the US occupation authorities, with the United Nations giving its rubber-stamp approval. The timing and procedures for the election were determined by US officials. And it was President Bush who decided earlier this month to reject the pleas of a majority of the Iraqi cabinet and oppose any postponement of the vote so as to allow for increased Sunni participation.

January 30 saw an unparalleled display of American military power on the streets of Baghdad, Mosul and other Iraqi cities. The 150,000 US troops were out in force, backed by hundreds of armored vehicles, and supplemented by another 150,000 US-trained Iraqi police and soldiers. Even the American media could not disguise the spectacle of Iraqis filing in to the polls through rolls of barbed wire, being frisked three separate times under the eyes of US snipers, while US helicopters and war planes roared overhead.

It was not a scene of freedom, but one of occupation and brutal subordination.

Within Iraq, the January 30 vote sets the stage for greater political conflicts and growing opposition to the US occupation regime. No official results are expected for at least a week, a delay which gives the US-backed regime plenty of time to manipulate the totals.

In the Shiite and Kurdish areas of the south and north, where a large voter turnout was reported, religious and tribal leaders are collaborating with the American occupation in return for promises of political power and financial concessions in a new US-backed regime. Their devil’s bargain may produce a regime headed by the United Iraqi Alliance, the main Shiite coalition, with Kurdish support—or they may be defrauded by their American overlords.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

The week before the vote saw a rash of reports in the American press that Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s party was gaining. Given the absence of reliable polls or forecasts of voter turnout, such speculation reveals the hopes of the Bush administration, and its effort, in league with the media, to condition public opinion to accept a manipulated outcome engineered by Washington. Allawi’s Iraqi National Accord was supported and financed by the CIA for more than a decade, and the former Baathist enforcer is still the favorite of the White House—perhaps as the middleman in a coalition regime embracing both the Shiite and Kurdish parties.

Even should such a coalition emerge, facilitated by the Sunni boycott, Kurdish separatism could quickly break it up. The National Assembly elected Sunday is to draft a constitution in which Shiite demands for majority control will run up against demands for quasi-independence in the Kurdish provinces. An early flashpoint will be the status of Kirkuk, at the center of the rich northern oilfields, with its population evenly divided among Arabs, Turkomen and Kurds, but claimed by the Kurdish parties as part of the future region of Kurdistan.

Within the United States, the government-backed media blitz on the triumph of democracy in Iraq is aimed at intimidating opponents of the war and US occupation. But this propaganda campaign only intensifies the contradictions in the Bush administration’s political position. If the Iraqi people have “taken control of their country,” as the White House claims, why must 150,000 US troops remain there? Why can’t 25 million Iraqis defend themselves from the small bands of foreign terrorists and Saddam Hussein loyalists who supposedly make up the resistance?

“Democratization” is merely the latest pretext for the US occupation, following the now discredited claims that the US invaded Iraq to destroy Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction or because of Saddam’s alleged connections with the terrorists who perpetrated the attacks of September 11, 2001. The democracy pretext, too, will be exploded by events.

..

 

[m.w.merlino]

GOOD READ